Extra! Extra!

Fundraising fraud by Texas state troopers

Amy Davis of KPRC-TV (Houston) exposed a telemarketing fraud being operated on behalf of Texas police. Calls being made by the Texas State Troopers Association (TSTA) were actually being made by a telemarketing firm. Recipients of these calls were told the money raised would go to help injured or killed officers and their families. In reality, the telemarketing firm was keeping 60% of the money raised, and the other 40% was going to political lobbying groups in Austin.

Post-Katrina fraud

Joel Grover of KNBC-TV(Los Angeles) investigated FEMA fraud after Hurricane Katrina. Following an initial investigation by Channel 4 last October, fifteen residents of the Los Angeles area were charged with theft after they made false claims to FEMA saying that they'd been left homeless in the wake of the storm. They made their claims to FEMA using fake New Orleans addresses. The seven defendents who pled "no contest" to the charges must reimburse the government for the payments they fraudulently received. Arrest warrants have been issued for the defendents who failed to appear in court.

Steroid abuse in NFL

Using federal court documents filed in the case against Dr. James Shortt, Charles Chandler of The Charlotte Observer uncovered an alarming case of steroid abuse in the NFL. Shortt prescribed a dangerous combination of preformance enhancing drugs to members of the Carolina Panthers without regard for the potential ill effects on the players. "Medical records made public in court documents reveal that players were given multiple refillable steroid prescriptions and that some suffered unwanted, appearance-altering symptoms, prompting more prescriptions...'Several of them were using disturbing, particularly alarmingly high amounts with high dosages for long durations -- some in combinations,' said steroids expert Dr. Gary Wadler...'this wasn't just a passing flirtation with these prohibited substances.'"

Miami housing agency fraud continues

In a recent installment of the on-going series "House of Lies," the Miami Herald's Debbie Cenziper and Larry Lebowitz uncovered more corruption in the Miami-Dade Housing Agency. Oscar Rivero had become a favored developer for the local housing authority - collecting millions, yet building nothing. "Today, the land where Rivero promised dozens of homes for the poor is still vacant, cordoned off by fences -- eyesores in already distressed neighborhoods. Rivero hasn't delivered a single house even though he's held on to millions of dollars in public money -- while buying personal properties and an office for more than $4.9 million." Following the story, Rivero was arrested and charged with "two first-degree felonies: grand theft and committing an organized scheme to defraud."

Memorial Medical Center Investigation

A five-part series by Jeffrey Meitrodt of the Times-Picayune details the situation that unfolded at Memorial Medical Center following Hurricane Katrina, including allegations of the murder of 4 eldery patients at the hands of Dr. Anna Pou and 2 nurses. This series appears as part of the Times-Picayune's coverage of "Katrina: One Year Later."

Sexual misconduct and military recruiters

Associated Press reporter Martha Mendoza reports on a probe into sexual misconduct by military recruiters. In a six-month investigation, the AP found "at least 35 Army recruiters, 18 Marine Corps recruiters, 18 Navy recruiters and 12 Air Force recruiters were disciplined for sexual misconduct or other inappropriate behavior with potential enlistees in 2005, according to records obtained by the AP under dozens of Freedom of Information Act requests."

Vietnam war crimes revisited

In continued coverage of unpunished war crimes during the Vietnam War, Deborah Nelson and Nick Turse, special to the Los Angeles Times, reveal disturbing details of military cover-ups. " While the Army was working energetically to discredit Herbert, military investigators were uncovering torture and mistreatment that went well beyond what he had described. The abuses were not made public, and few of the wrongdoers were punished." Included in their report are excerpts of the declassified documents which detail these cover-ups.

"Desert Connections"

Chuck Neubauer and Richard T. Cooper of the Los Angeles Times report on an epic development project in Nevada - a "67-square-mile tract of empty desert will blossom into one of the biggest cities in the fastest-growing state in the country and the projected home to more than 200,000 people." The project is on track largely due to close ties between Senator Harry Reid and developer Harvey Whittemore - a mutually beneficial relationship wherein Reid has used his influence to clear obstacles in the process and Whittemore has made significant campaign contributions to Reid and other Democrats.

Sept. 11 - Five years later

The Washington Post has launched a series examining how government agencies have responded to 9/11 in the past five years. Stories include coverage of a failed $170 million contract to rebuild the FBI's internal case file system, and how training at the FBI Academy fails to adequately keep pace with its new focus on terrorism.

A tale of elderly exploitation

In a unique investigation built as a narrative, Lee Hancock of the Dallas Morning News reports on a troubling trend of finacial exploitation of the elderly. This series details the experiences of Mary Ellen Bendtsen. "Her crumbling mansion is now a battleground for her relatives and two art-deco antique dealers with a history of befriending elderly Dallasites - and ending up with their homes and money." While this story focuses on the experiences of an individual, it is estimated that "one in five elderly Americans will be victims of some form of financial exploitation, losing at least a third of their assests. For each case reported to authorities, 12 to 15 cases are believed to go unreported."

Racial Diversity in adoptions on the rise

Lynette Clemetson and Ron Nixon of The New York Times looked at federal records and data maintained by Cornell University to identify a rise in interracial adoptions. "In 2004, 26 percent of black children adopted from foster care, about 4,200, were adopted transracially, nearly all by whites. That is up from roughly 14 percent, or 2,200, in 1998." Included in the report is a graphic which illustrates the changing trends in transracial adoptions.

Police abuse power to extort sex

Nancy Phillips and Craig R. McCoy of The Philadelphia Inquirer report on the troubling trend of police officers in Philadelphia using their status to extort sex. "Most police departments do little to identify the offenders, and even less to stop them. Unlike other types of police misconduct, the abuse of police power to coerce sex is little addressed in training, and rarely tracked by police disciplinary systems. This official neglect makes it easeir for predators to escape punishment and find new victims."

"Adult interference" inflates NJ test scores

The Philadelphia Inquirer's Frank Kummer and Melanie Burney expose the findings of a New Jersey Department of Education report on irregular test scores in the region. While avoiding the use of the word cheating, the report found that "adult interference" was the likely culprit of unusually high test scores in the Camden area. The Department of Education's investigation was launched after the Inquirer challanged the validity of unusually high scores in February of this year.

ACS Data Spawns Slew of Stories

Following the release of the American Community Survey data by the Census Bureau, Mary Jo Sylwester of the St. Paul Pioneer Press compiled a list of stories utilizing the data set. Some of these include:

• Impact of immigrants on churches, St. Paul Pioneer Press
• A third of the households in Wisconsin are individuals living alone, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
• Drop in Long Island school enrollment, Newsday
• Spanish becoming primary language in more households throughout Chicago, Chicago Tribune
• Disabilities in Kentucky on the rise, Lexington Herald-Leader
• Immigrant communities dispersing around the country, USA Today
• Utah's graduation rates, Deseret Morning News

Hospital profits from nonprofit tax loopholes

Tim Darragh and Ann Wlazelek, of The Morning Call, report on the Lehigh Valley (PA) Hospital which posted a record surplus - $ 76 million - in 2005. "Such boomtown prosperity at a nonprofit institution is allowed under the tax code as long as the hospital provides a substantial "community benefit" each year in exchange for an exemption from local, state and federal taxes." Scrutiny of this "community benefit" illuminates problems in state and national rules. "Much of what the hospital claimed as community benefit was what for-profit businesses would consider routine business costs: unpaid bills, employee orientation costs...another significant portion of its reported community benefit involved putting a price tag on the hospital's volunteers." Darragh and Wlazelek look the issues at hand, including suggested tax reforms at the federal and state levels.

Black students leaving Birmingham (Ala.) schools

Jeff Hansen and Marie Leech of The Birmingham News report on black flight from Birmingham's public schools and its impact on suburban school districts. In the past five years, Birmingham schools have lost 20 percent of their students. Nine of every 10 of those 7,300 children who left the city were black.

War Crimes in Vietnam went unpunished

A report by Nick Turse and Deborah Nelson for the Los Angeles Times shows recently declassified documents regarding war crimes committed during the Vietnam War establish that hundreds of soldiers went unpunished for crimes against Vietnamese civilians. "The records describe recurrent attacks on ordinary Vietnamese — families in their homes, farmers in rice paddies, teenagers out fishing. Hundreds of soldiers, in interviews with investigators and letters to commanders, described a violent minority who murdered, raped and tortured with impunity." Retired Brig. Gen John H. Johns served on the task force and once believed these records should remain classified, but has since changed his perspective due to similar alleged abuses in Iraq. "We can't change current practices unless we acknowledge the past."

City officials in Iowa generously compensated

"City managers and administrators in the Des Moines area and other large Iowa cities tend to be paid well above the national average - some by more than nearly double the national average," reported Jason Clayworth and Melissa Walker of the Des Moines Register. By looking at the compensation packages given to city government officials, the Register was able to uncover how city officials' pay is padded by bonuses and other perks such as car allowances. In light of this information, one lawmaker has suggested banning bonuses for all state employees. You can see the database of state employees' salaries here.

Valero seeks millions from TX counties

L.A. Lorek of the San Antonio Express-News reports that counties in Texas may end up paying Valero - the nation's largest independent refiner - millions of dollars due to inflated property assessments. Valero contends that "most of its Bexar properties — everything from its corner store gas stations to its corporate headquarters — are worth about half the appraised amounts. That means if Valero wins its lawsuits, the Bexar County tax assessor would have to refund the company almost $8 million in property taxes."

Florida plans for potential Cuban exodus

Kevin Begos, of the Tampa Tribune, reports that Florida has a plan in place to handle the potential influx of Cuban immigrants into the state. The Tribune obtained the state's Mass Migration Response plan through a public records request. Plans include "setting up long-term detention sites across the country" to help defray the logistical stress placed on Florida communities.

Behind the mask of the Mo. execution doctor

Jeremy Kohler, of the St. Lousi Post-Dispatch, uncovered the identity of the doctor responsible supervising Missouri's lethal injection procedure. Banned from practicing in two hospitals in the state, charged with malpractice over 20 times and having received a public reprimand in 2003 by the state Board of Healing Arts, Alan R. Doerhoff has overseen lethal injections since 1995 for the Missouri Department of Corrections. Troubling is the fact that the Attorney General Jay Nixon's office not only signed off on Doerhoff's reprimand, but simultaneously protected him by fighting to keep his identity hidden in death penalty appeals. In a recent case questioning whether the state's lethal injection protocol was consitutionally humane, Doerhoff "described it in terms so troubling to a federal judge that he ordered it halted. The doctor testified anonymously that he is dyslexic. That he sometimes confused names of drugs. That he sometimes gave inconsistent testimony. That the injection protocol was not written down, and that he made changes on his "independent authority.""